Fast initialization using seamless rate adaptation

ABSTRACT

A method for initializing modems in a multicarrier transmission system to establish a communication link between the transmitter and the receiver. An exemplary embodiment includes the steps of providing a predetermined parameter value that approximates a corresponding actual parameter value of the communication link, establishing a data communication link between a first transceiver and a second transceiver using the predetermined parameter value to allow the transmission of data, determining the actual parameter value, and seamlessly increasing the data rate of the established data communication link by using the determined actual parameter value to provide an steady state communication link with an updated data rate.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application is a divisional application of U.S. application Ser.No. 10/459,535 entitled “Fast Initialization Using Seamless RateAdaptation,” filed Jun. 12, 2003 which is a Divisional of U.S.application Ser. No. 10/046,192, entitled “Fast Initialization UsingSeamless Rate Adaptation,” filed Jan. 16, 2002 which claims the benefitof and priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/262,240,filed Jan. 16, 2001, entitled “Fast Initialization Using Seamless RateAdaptation,” and is related to U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/522,870, filed Mar. 10, 2000, entitled “A Method for SeamlesslyChanging Power Modes and ADSL Systems,” U.S. patent application Ser. No.09/522,869, filed Mar. 10, 2000, entitled “Seamless Rate AdaptedAdaptive Multicarrier Modulation System and Protocols,” U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 09/523,086, filed Mar. 10, 2000, entitled “A Methodfor Synchronizing Seamless Rate Adaptation,” and U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 09/918,033, filed Aug. 1, 2001, entitled “Systems and Methodsfor Transporting a Network Timing Reference in an ADSL System,” all ofwhich are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

This invention generally relates to Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)systems. In particular, this invention relates to a method ofinitializing modems in a DSL system.

2. Description of Related Art

Multicarrier modulation, or Discrete Multitone Modulation (DMT), is atransmission method that is being widely used for communication overmedia, and especially over difficult media. Multicarrier modulationdivides the transmission frequency band into multiple subchannels, i.e.,carriers, with each carrier individually modulating a bit or acollection of bits. A transmitter modulates an input data streamcontaining information bits with one or more carriers and transmits themodulated information. A receiver demodulates all of the carriers inorder to recover the transmitted information bits as an output datastream.

Multicarrier modulation has many advantages over single carriermodulation. These advantages include, for example, a higher immunity toimpulse noise, a lower complexity equalization requirement in thepresence of a multipath, a higher immunity to narrow band interference,a higher data rate and bandwidth flexibility. Multicarrier modulation isbeing used in many applications to obtain these advantages, as well asfor other reasons. The applications include, for example, AsymmetricDigital Subscriber Line (ADSL) systems, Wireless LAN systems, power linecommunications systems, and other applications. ITU standards G.992.1,G.992.2 and the ANSI T1.413 standard, each of which are incorporatedherein by reference in their entirety, specify standard implementationsfor ADSL transceivers that use multicarrier modulation.

FIG. 1 illustrates an exemplary standard compliant ADSL DMT transmitter100. In particular, the ADSL DMT transmitter 100 comprises three layers:the modulation layer 110, the Framer/Forward Error Correction (FEC)layer 120, and the ATM TC (Asynchronous Transfer Mode TransmissionConvergence) layer 140.

The modulation layer 110 provides the functionality associated with DMTmodulation. In particular, DMT modulation is implemented using anInverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) 112. The IDFT 112 modulatesbits from the Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) encoder 114 into themulticarrier subchannels. The ADSL multicarrier transceiver modulates anumber of bits on each subchannel, the number of bits depending on theSignal to Noise Ratio (SNR) of that subchannel and the Bit Error Rate(BER) requirement of the communications link. For example, if therequired BER is 1×10⁻⁷, i.e., on bit in ten million is received in erroron average, and the SNR of a particular subchannel is 21.5 dB, then thatsubchannel can modulate 4 bits, since 21.6 dB is the required SNR totransmit 4 QAM bits with a 1×10⁻⁷ BER. Other subchannels can have adifferent SNR's and therefore may have a different number of bitsallocated to them at the same BER. The current ITU and ANSI ADSLstandards allow up to 15 bits to be modulated on one carrier.

A table that specifies how many bits are allocated to each subchannelfor modulation in one DMT symbol is called a Bit Allocation Table (BAT).A DMT symbol is the collection of analog samples generated at the outputof the IDFT by modulating the carriers with bits according to the BAT isthe main parameter used in the modulation layer 110. The BAT is used bythe QAM encoder 114 and the IDFT 112 for encoding and modulation. Thefollowing Table illustrates an example of a BAT for an exemplary DMTsystem having 16 subchannels. TABLE 1 Subchannel Bits per NumberSubchannel 1 5 2 9 3 3 4 2 5 4 6 0 7 5 8 7 9 8 10  3 11  0 12  5 13  614  8 15  4 16  3 Total Bits Per 80 DMT Symbol

In ADSL systems, the typical DMT symbol rate is approximately 4 kHz.This means that a new DMT symbol modulating a new set of bits, using themodulation BAT, is transmitted every 250 microseconds. If the exemplaryBAT in Table 1, which specifies 80 bits modulated in one DMT symbol,were used at a 4 kHz DMT symbol rate, the bit rate of the system wouldbe 4000*80=320 kbits per second (kbps).

The BAT determines the data rate of the system and is dependent on thetransmission channel characteristics, i.e., the SNR of each subchannelin the multicarrier system. A channel with low noise, i.e., a high SNRon each subchannel, will have many bits modulated on each DMT carrierand will thus have a high bit rate. If the channel conditions are poor,e.g., high noise, the SNR will be low and the bits modulated on eachcarrier will be few, resulting in a low system bit rate. As can be seenin Table 1, some subchannels may actually modulate zero bits. An exampleis the case when a narrow band interferer, such as an AM broadcast, ispresent at a subchannel's frequency and causes the SNR in thatsubchannel to be too low to carry any information bits.

The ATM TC layer 140 comprises an Asynchronous Transfer ModeTransmission Convergence (ATM TC) section 142 that transforms bits andbytes in cells into frames.

The Framer/FEC layer 120 provides the functionality associated withpreparing a stream of bits for modulation. The Framer/FEC layer 120comprises an Interleaving (INT) portion 122, a Forward Error Correction(FEC) portion 124, a scrambler (SCR) portion 126, a Cyclic RedundancyCheck (CRC) portion 128 and an ADSL Framer portion 130. The Interleavingand FEC coding provide an impulse immunity and a coding gain. The FECportion 124 in the standard ADSL system is a Reed-Solomon (R-S) code.The scrambler 126 is used to randomize the data bits. The CRC portion128 is used to provide error detection at the receiver. The ADSL Framerportion 130 frames the received bits from the ATM framer 142. The ADSLframer 130 also inserts and extracts overhead bits from the module 132for modem to modem overhead communication channels, which are known asEOC and AOC channels in the ADSL standards.

The key parameters of the Framer/FEC layer 120 are the size of the R-Scodeword, the size, i.e., depth, of the interleaver, which is measuredin the number of R-S codewords, and the size of the ADSL frame. As anexample, a typical size for an R-S codeword may be 216 bytes, a typicalsize for interleaver depth may be 64 codewords, and a typical size ofthe ADSL frame may be 200 bytes. It is also possible to have aninterleaving depth equal to one, which is equivalent to no interleaving.In order to recover the digital signal that was originally prepared fortransmission using a transmitter as discussed above, it is necessary todeinterleave the codewords by using a deinterleaver that performs theinverse process to that of the interleaver, with the same depthparameter. In the current ADSL standards, there is a specificrelationship between all of these parameters in a DMT system.Specifically, the BAT size, N_(BAT), i.e., the total number of bits in aDMT symbol, is fixed to be an integer divisor of the R-S codeword size,N_(FEC), as expressed in Equation 1:N _(FEC) =S*N _(BAT),  (1)where S is a positive integer greater than 0.

This constant can also be expressed as one R-S codeword containing aninteger number of DMT symbols. The R-S codeword contains data bytes andparity, i.e, checkbytes. The checkbytes are overhead bytes that areadded by the R-S encoder and are used by the R-S decoder to detect andcorrect bit errors. There are R checkbytes in a R-S codeword. Typically,the number of checkbytes is a small percentage of the overall codewordsize, e.g., 8%. Most channel coding methods are characterized by theircoding gain, which is defined as the system performance improvement, indB, provided by the code when compared to an uncoded system. The codinggain of the R-S codeword depends on the number of checkbytes and the R-Scodeword size. A large R-S codeword, e.g., greater than 200 bytes in aDMT ADSL system, along with 16 checkbytes, i.e., 8% of the 200 bytes,will provide close to the maximum coding gain of 4 dB. If the codewordsize is smaller and/or the percentage of checkbyte overhead is high,e.g., greater than 30%, the coding gain may be very small or evennegative. In general, it is best to have the ADSL system operating withthe largest possible R-S codeword, with the current maximum being 255bytes, and approximately 8% redundancy.

There is also a specific relationship between the number of bytes in anADSL frame, N_(FRAME), and the R-S codeword size, N_(FEC) that isexpressed in Equation (2):N _(FEC) =S×N _(FRAME) +R,  (2)where R is the number of R-S checkbytes in a codeword and S is the samepositive integer as in Equation (1).

It is apparent from equating the right-hand sides of Equations (1) and(2) that the relationship expressed in Equation (3) results in:N _(BAT) =N _(FRAME) +R/S.  (3)

The current ADSL standard requires that the ratio (R/S) is an integer,i.e. there is an integer number of R-S checkbytes in every DMT-symbol(N_(BAT)). As described above, ADSL frames contain overhead bytes, whichare not part of the payload, that are used for modem to modemcommunications. A byte in an ADSL frame that is used for the overheadchannel cannot be used for the actual user data communication, andtherefore the user data rate decreases accordingly. The informationcontent and format of these channels is described in the ITU and ANSIstandards. There are several framing modes defined in ADSL standards.Depending on the framing mode, the number of overhead bytes in one ADSLframe varies. For example, standard Framing Mode 3 has 1 overhead byteper ADSL frame.

Equations (1), (2) and (3) demonstrate that the parameter restrictionsimposed by the standards result in the following conditions:

All DMT symbols have a fixed number of overhead framing bytes that areadded at the ADSL framer. For example, in Framing Mode #3, there is 1overhead framing byte per DMT symbol.

There is a minimum of one R-S checkbyte per DMT symbol.

The maximum number of checkbytes according to ITU Standard G.992.2 (8)and ITU Standards G.992.2 and T1.413 (16) limits the maximum codewordsize to 8*N_(BAT) for G.992.2, and to 16*N_(BAT) for G.992.1 and T1.413.

An ADSL modem cannot change the number of bits in a DMT symbol (N_(BAT))without making the appropriate changes to the number of bytes in a R-Scodeword (N_(FEC)) and an ADSL frame (N_(FRAME)).

The above four restrictions cause performance limitations in currentADSL systems. In particular, because of condition 1, every DMT symbolhas a fixed number of overhead framing bytes. This is a problem when thedata rate is low and the overhead framing bytes consume a largepercentage of the possible throughput, which results in a lower payload.For example, if the date rate supported by the line is 6.144 Mbps, thiswill result in a DMT symbol with about 192 bytes per symbol(192*8*4000=6144 kbps). In this case, one overhead framing byte wouldconsume 1/192 or about 0.5% of the available throughput. But if the daterate is 128 kbps, or 4 bytes per symbol, the overhead framing byte willconsume 1/4 or 25% of the available throughput. Clearly this isundesirable.

Condition 2 will cause the same problems as condition 1. In this case,the overhead framing byte is replaced by the R-S checkbyte.

Condition 3 will not allow the construction of large codewords when thedata rate is low. The R-S codewords in ADSL can have a maximum of 255bytes. The maximum coding gain is achieved when the codeword size isnear the maximum 255 bytes. When the data rate is low, e.g., 128 kbps or4 bytes per symbol, the maximum codeword size will be 8*4=32 bytes forG.992.2 systems and 16*4=64 bytes for G.992.1 and T1.413 systems. Inthis case the coding gain will be substantially lower than for largecodewords approaching 255 bytes.

In general, if the data rate is low, e.g., 128 kbps or 4 bytes persymbol, the above conditions will result in 1 byte being used foroverhead framing, and 1 byte being consumed by an R-S checkbyte.Therefore 50% of the available throughput will not be used for payloadand the R-S codeword size will be at most 64 bytes, resulting innegligible coding gain.

Condition 4 affects the ability of the modem to adapt its transmissionparameters on-line in a dynamic manner.

G.992.1 and T1.413 specify a mechanism to do on-line rate adaptation,called Dynamic Rate Adaptation (DRA), but it is clearly stated in thesestandards that the change in data rate will not be seamless. In general,current ADSL DMT modems use Bit Swapping and dynamic rate adaptation(DRA) as methods for on-line adaptation to channel changes. Bit swappingis specified in the ITU and ANSI standards as a method for modifying thenumber of bits allocated to a particular carrier. Bit Swapping isseamless, i.e., it does not result in an interruption in datatransmission and reception, however, bit swapping does not allow achanging of data rates. Bit Swapping only allows the changing of thenumber of bits allocated to carriers while maintaining the same datarate. This is equivalent to changing the entries in the BAT tablewithout allowing the total number of bits (N_(BAT)) in the BAT toincrease or decrease.

DRA enables a change in data rate, but is not seamless. DRA is also veryslow because it requires the modem located in the Central Office (CO) tomake the final decision on the data rate configuration. This model,where the CO being the master, is common among ADSL modems that aredesigned to provide a service offered and controller by the telephonecompany.

Both Bit Swapping and DRA use a specific protocol that is specified inthe ANSI T1.413, G.992.1 and G.992.2 standards for negotiating thechange. This protocol negotiates the parameters using messages that aresent via an AOC channel, which is an embedded channel. This protocol issensitive to impulse noise and high noise levels. If the messages arecorrupted, the transmitter and receiver can enter a state where they areusing different transmission parameters, e.g., BAT, data rate, R-Scodeword length, interleaver depth, etc. When two communicating modemsenter a state of mismatched transmission parameters, data will bereceived in error and the modems will eventually be required to takedrastic measures, such as full re-initialization, in order to restoreerror free transmission. Drastic measures such as full reinitializationwill result in the service being dropped for approximately 10 seconds,which is the time required for the current standards compliant ADSLmodem to complete a full initialization.

A transceiver has both a transmitter and a receiver. The receiverincludes the receiver equivalent blocks of the transmitter as shown inFIG. 1. The receiver has modules that include a decoder, a deinterleaverand a demodulator. In operation, the receiver accepts a signal in analogform that was transmitted by a transmitter, optionally amplifies thesignal in an amplifier, filters the signal to remove noise componentsand to separate the signal from other frequencies, converts the analogsignal to a digital signal through the use of an analog to digitalconverter, demodulates the signal to generate the received bit streamfrom the carrier subchannels by the use of a demodulator, deinterleavesthe bit stream by the used of a deinterleaver, performs the FEC decodingto correct errors in the bit stream by use of an FEC decoder,descrambles the bit stream by use of a descrambler, and detects biterrors in the bit stream by use of a CRC. Various semiconductor chipmanufacturers supply hardware and software that can perform thefunctions of a transmitter, a receiver, or both.

In addition, to establish communication between the transceivers at thevery onset, full initialization of the modems of the transceivers mustbe completed. Conventional ADSL modems will always go through aninitialization procedure during which known training signals are setbetween the transceivers. Conventional ADSL modems utilize aninitialization procedure as specified in the 992.1 and 994.1 standards,as well as the published but not yet adopted G.dmt.bis standard, whichare incorporated herein by reference.

The primary purpose of the initialization procedure is to measure theline conditions and train all receiver functions of the transceivers tooptimize the ADSL transmission system to thereby maximize the datarates.

During the initialization procedure various transmission parametervalues are determined. The parameters values include, for example, biterror rate, bit allocation value, gain value, or such parameter valuesthat have been grouped such as in bit allocation tables and gain tablesas well as other parameters such as the overhead bits of the EOC and AOCchannels, size of the R-S codeword, number of parity bits in the R-Scodeword, depth of the interleaver, size of the ADSL frame, and overheadframing bytes. The parameter values may also be the signal to noiseratio (SNR) of the channel that is accurately measured so that maximumpossible data rate can be attained, the time domain equalizer filtertaps, the frequency domain equalizer filter taps, the echo cancellerfilter taps, and the like.

Typically, the full initialization procedure is attained in a series ofinitialization steps where one or more of the above noted parametervalues that define the characteristics of the communication link betweenthe transceivers are determined in one initialization step prior toproceeding to the next initialization step. This standard initializationprocedure is illustrated in the functional block diagram of FIG. 2. Uponbeginning the intitialization of the modems of the transceivers in theADSL transmission system in step S20, a series of initialization stepsare taken in sequence: initialization step S22, initialization step S24,and then initialization step S26. Each of these initialization stepsrequire one or more parameter values noted previously that define thecharacteristics of the communication link between the transceivers. Inthis regard, the actual parameter value A indicated as 21 is needed tocomplete initialization step S22, the actual parameter value B indicatedas 23 is needed to complete initialization step S24, and the actualparameter value C indicated as 25 is needed to complete initializationstep S26. Each of these actual parameter values must be determined basedon the type of modem, the standards used, and the condition of thecommunication channel in the standard initialization procedures.

Of course, these initialization steps are illustrated generically sincethey depend on the particular initialization standard followed. Forinstance, in initialization step S22, a handshake procedure between thetransceivers may be performed to indicate that a communication link isdesired between them. In initialization step S24, a channel between thetransceivers that is available for use in establishing the communicationlink may be discovered. The initializing step S26 may be the step inwhich the transceivers are trained based on additional parameter valuesto designate attributes of the discovered channel. For example, in amulticarrier communication system step S26 may be used to measure theSNR of every subchannel. Based on the measured SNR parameter thetransceiver would determine the bit allocation and gain tables. In thisregard, each of the initialization steps would likely entaildetermination and/or use of one or more of the various parameter valuesby one or both of the modems, depending on the parameter value, to aidin the process of establishing the steady state communication link.

Once the various parameter values are determined and the receiver signalprocessors are trained in the initialization steps, the initializationof the modems are complete as indicated by S27, thus allowing the modemsto establish a steady state communication link as shown in S28. Whensuch steady state communication link is established as indicated by S28,the transmission system is functional and is in a data transmission modeso that the user may operate the communications system to transmit andreceive data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In the above described standard initialization procedure shown in FIG.2, the steady state communication link is only established after thecompletion of all the initialization steps. Time is required todetermine the actual parameter values required in the variousinitialization steps. In this regard, as noted previously, theinitialization of the modems of the transceivers compliant to thecurrent standards typically take approximately 10 seconds, during whichtime the user is precluded from using the system. Thus, the user mustwait for the completion of initialization of the modems before thecommunication system establishes a communication link that allows theuser to utilize the system to transmit and receive data. This delay ofapproximately 10 seconds is viewed by many users, equipment providersand service providers as a negative aspect of ADSL service since itmeans that every time the ADSL link is established or reconnected aftera loss of synchronization, the user must wait approximately 10 secondsfor the complete initialization to finish prior to using the system.

Moreover, as also noted previously, this initialization period not onlyoccurs during the initial powering of the system, but also when twocommunicating modems enter a state of mismatched transmission parameterswhich result in data being received, for example, in error. Since fullreinitialization is required to restore error free transmission, thedata service is dropped for the duration of the reinitialization periodso that the user is again precluded from utilizing the system. Thisresults in numerous 10 second delays if the two communicating modems areprone to entering a state of mismatched transmission due to changes inline quality, interference, or the like.

In view of the above, one aspect of an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention is that it provides a method for initializing modemswhich reduces the duration in which the user is precluded from utilizingthe system as a communication link.

Another aspect of an exemplary embodiment of the present invention isthat it provides a method for initializing modems that allows a rapidtransition to a data communications state.

Still another aspect of an exemplary embodiment of the present inventionis that it provides such a method for initializing modems that optimizesthe communication link between the modems while data is communicatedtherebetween.

In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, the abovenoted advantages are attained by a method for initializing transceiversin a multicarrier transmission system to establish a communication linkbetween the transmitter and the receiver. The method includes the stepsof providing at least one predetermined parameter value thatapproximates a corresponding actual parameter value of the communicationlink between the transmitter and the receiver, establishing a datacommunication link between the transmitter and the receiver using the atleast one predetermined parameter value as an approximation of theactual parameter value of the communication link, thus allowing themulticarrier transmission system to transmit data between thetransmitter and the receiver, the data communication link establishedusing the at least one predetermined parameter value having anassociated data rate that may be different than a data rate attainedwhen the actual parameter value corresponding to the at least onepredetermined parameter value is used, determining the actual parametervalue corresponding to the at least one predetermined parameter valueafter establishing the data communication link using the predeterminedparameter value, and seamlessly adapting the data rate of theestablished communication link by using the determined actual parametervalue to provide a steady state communication link with a different datarate.

In the above regard, the at least one predetermined parameter value maybe a plurality of predetermined parameter values that approximate aplurality of actual parameter values where the communication link isestablished using the plurality of predetermined parameter values. Thedata rate of the communication link established using the plurality ofpredetermined parameter values may be different than a data rateattained when the plurality of actual parameter values are used. Each ofthe plurality of actual parameter values are determined and the datarate of the communication link is seamlessly adapted using thedetermined plurality of actual parameter values. In this regard, theexemplary step of determining each of the plurality of actual parametervalues is attained iteratively in a manner that at least one actualparameter value is determined in each iteration. Preferably, theexemplary method further includes the step of iteratively seamlesslyadapting the data rate of the communication link after each iteration asthe at least one actual parameter value is determined in each iteration.

In accordance with another exemplary embodiment, the plurality ofpredetermined parameter values and the corresponding actual parametervalues may be indicative of at least one of a signal to noise ratio, abit error rate, a bit allocation value, a bit allocation table, a gainvalue and a gain table. Alternatively, or in addition, the plurality ofpredetermined parameter values and the corresponding actual parametervalues may be indicative of at least one of overhead bits of EOC and AOCchannels, codeword size, number of parity bits in a codeword, depth ofan interleaver, size of an ADSL frame, and overhead framing bytes.Alternatively, or in addition, the plurality of predetermined and thecorresponding actual parameter values may be indicative of the channelSNR, the time domain equalizer filter taps, the frequency domainequalizer filter taps and the echo canceller filter taps.

In accordance with another exemplary aspect of the present invention, amodem initializing procedure is provided for initializing modems in amulticarrier transmission system that minimizes the amount of time inthe initialization sequence before transitioning to a data communicationstate. The modem initializing procedure includes the steps of exchanginga message that indicates that a communication link is desired betweenthe transceivers, determining a channel between the plurality oftransceivers that is available for use in establishing the communicationlink, accessing at least one predetermined parameter value thatapproximates an actual parameter value of the communication link betweenthe transmitter and the receiver, training the transceivers using the atleast one predetermined parameter value to designate attributes of thedetermined channel, establishing a data communication link through thedetermined channel using the at least one predetermined parameter valueto allow a user to use the multicarrier transmission system to transmitand receive data between the plurality of transceivers, the establisheddata communication link having a data rate that is generally, althoughnot necessarily, lower than a data rate attainable using the actualparameter value that corresponds to the at least one predeterminedparameter value, analyzing the channel to determine the actual parametervalue after establishing the data communication link using the at leastone predetermined parameter value, and seamlessly increasing the datarate of the established data communication link using the determinedactual parameter value to provide a steady state communication link withan updated data rate.

According to another exemplary embodiment of the invention, ADSL DMTsystems and methods are provided that establish a data communicationlink during initialization and that change the data transmission bitrate parameters in a seamless manner during initialization. The ADSL DMTsystems and methods operate according to protocols that allow theseamless change of transmission bit rates during initialization and thisseamless change of transmission bit rates may be initiated by either thetransmitter or the receiver, e.g., the CO or the CPE modem.

These and other features and advantages of this invention are describedin, or are apparent from, the following detailed description of theembodiments.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The embodiments of the invention will be described in detail, withreference to the following figures wherein:

FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram illustrating a standard compliantADSL DMT transmitter;

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram illustrating a standardinitialization procedure;

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating an initializationprocedure in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart outlining a method of initializing modems in amulticarrier transmission system in accordance with one embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 5 is a flowchart outlining a method of initializing modems in amulticarrier transmission system in accordance with another embodimentof the present invention;

FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of an ADSL frame and R-Scodewords;

FIG. 7 is a functional block diagram illustrating an exemplary duallatency ADSL DMT transmitter;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary method of a seamless rateadaptive transmission;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart outlining a second exemplary method of seamlessrate adaptive transmissions;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart outlining an exemplary method of fast seamlessrate adaptive transmissions;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart outlining a second exemplary method of fastseamless rate adaptive transmission; and

FIG. 12 is flowchart illustrating an exemplary method of transporting aNTR.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram illustrating an initializationprocedure in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention. As can be seen, the full initialization procedure is attainedin a series of initialization steps where one or more of the previouslynoted parameter values that define the characteristics of thecommunication link between the transceivers are determined and used forestablishing the communication link. However, in contrast to thestandard initialization procedures such as that shown in FIG. 2, rapidestablishment of a data communication link is made possible so that theuser can quickly utilize the transmission system to transmit and receivedata.

In particular, as can be seen in FIG. 3, the intitialization of thetransceivers in the transmission system is started in step S30. However,unlike the standard initialization procedure in which the actualparameter values are determined and initialization steps are executed insequence using these actual parameter values, at least one predeterminedparameter value such as the predetermined values A, B, and C, indicatedby 31, are provided in accordance with the initialization procedure ofan exemplary embodiment of the present invention. These predeterminedvalues may be stored on one or more of the transceivers or other storagedevices. These predetermined parameter values A, B, and C are used forthe various initialization steps S32, S33, and S34, respectively, toallow quick establishment of a data communication link in step S35. Ofcourse, in other examples, there may be fewer or additional steps, threesteps being shown here as an example only. When such data communicationlink is established as indicated by step S35, the communication systemis functional and the user may utilize the transmission system totransmit and receive data.

Moreover, it should again be noted that these initialization steps areillustrated generically since they depend on the particularinitialization standard followed. For instance, in initialization stepS32, an information exchange procedure between the transceivers may beperformed to indicate that a communication link is desired between thetransceivers. In initialization step S33, a channel between thetransceivers that is available for use in establishing the communicationlink may be determined. The initializing step S34 may be the step inwhich the transceivers are trained. Of course, in other embodiments,these initialization steps may entail different, additional or a lessernumber of specific steps.

It should be appreciated that because the data communication linkestablished in S35 in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention utilizes predetermined parameter values 31 instead ofthe actual parameter values, the data rate or capacity of thecommunication link is not necessarily optimized. Therefore, the datarate of the communication link established using the predeterminedparameter values could be higher or lower than the data rate attainedwhen the actual parameter values are used. In the case when the datarate is higher than can be attained when the actual parameters are used,the connection can be established at a bit error rate that is higherthan expected. For example, if the BER is expected to be 1E-7, as is inmost conventional ADSL systems, connection at a higher data rate couldresult in a BER of 1E-5. This means that the received data will have, onaverage, 1 bit out of every 10000 bits in error, whereas it is desiredto have 1 bit out of every 10,000,000 bits in error. Obviously operatingat a data rate without achieving the required BER is a sub-optimum modeof operation. Nonetheless, in either case, whether the data rate is toohigh or too low, the user is allowed to use the transmission system totransmit and receive data, although possibly at a sub-optimum data rate.

To optimize the data rate of the communication link, subsequent to theestablishment of the data communication link in step S35, the actualparameter values 36 corresponding to the predetermined values 31 aredetermined and the data rate of the established data communication linkis seamlessly updated using the determined actual parameter values 36.The seamless updating of the data rate is attained, for example,utilizing Seamless Rate Adaptation techniques as described in furtherdetail herein below. In this regard, an exemplary embodiment of thepresent invention allows, for example, such seamless adaptation of thedata rate to be attained even while the user is transmitting andreceiving data over the communications system. Once all the actualparameter values 36 are determined, and the data rate of the datacommunication link established in step S35 is seamlessly adapted usingthe determined actual parameter values 36, the initialization procedurebetween the modems is completed in step S37 and the modems enter steadystate communication.

Again, the exemplary predetermined parameter values 31 and thecorresponding actual paramete values 36 include those parameter valuesthat define the characteristics of the communication link between thetransceivers of the transmission system, and are preferably required forthe establishment of the data communication link. In this regard, thepredetermined parameter value 31 may be bit error rate, bit allocationvalue, a gain value, or such parameter value(s) that have been groupedtogether such as in bit allocation tables and/or gain tables as well asother parameters including a signal to noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, thepredetermined parameter value 31 may also be overhead bits of EOC andAOC channels, a codeword size, number of parity bits in a codeword,depth of an interleaver, size of an ADSL frame, and overhead framingbytes. Alternatively, or in addition, the predetermined parameter values31 may be the channel SNR, the time domain equalizer filter taps, thefrequency domain equalizer filter taps and the echo canceller filtertaps.

Of course, these are merely examples of parameter values and are notexhaustive. In this regard, in other exemplary embodiments, thepredetermined parameter values may also merely be pointers that point toa particular predetermined parameter value or set of values to be used,the predetermined parameter(s) being stored in a storage deviceaccessible by one or more of the modems of the communications system.Moreover, in yet other exemplary embodiments, the predeterminedparameter values may even be functions or equations that provideestimates or approximations of the actual parameter values based onvarious known or determinable actual parameter values. As to whichparameter values are provided in the predetermined parameter value 31 islargely dependent on the design of the transmission system and thestandard used, such design and standard determining the parameter valuesrequired to establish the data and steady state communication link.

Thus, for the transceivers in the ADSL transmission system that utilizethe initializing procedure in accordance with the present invention asshown in FIG. 3, a data communication link is established much fasterthan conventional modems that utilize standard initialization procedureswhich require determination of the actual parameter values to completefull initialization prior to the establishment of any communicationlink. By providing predetermined parameter values 31 and using thesevalues for the initialization steps and quickly establishing the datacommunication link in step S35, the delay which would result indetermining the actual parameter values can be avoided.

Moreover, the seamless rate adaptation techniques allow the data rate ofthe communication link between the modems of the transmission system tobe seamlessly adapted without requiring disruption in the communicationlink or requiring full initialization. In this manner, theinitialization period during which the user is precluded from using thesystem is greatly reduced from for example, 10 seconds to approximately1 second or even less. Although the transceivers may transmit andreceive data at sub-optimum data rates, this disadvantage may be quicklyovercome by seamlessly modifying the data rate after data transmissionand reception are underway.

FIG. 4 shows a flowchart outlining a method of initializing modems in amulticarrier transmission system in accordance with an exemplaryembodiment of the present invention which may be used to establish acommunication link therebetween.

Upon beginning the initialization in step S40, the method includes thestep S41 of providing at least one predetermined parameter value thatapproximates a corresponding actual parameter value of the communicationlink between the transceivers. Predetermined parameter values can begenerated in a number of ways. For example the actual parameter valuesfrom a previously completed standard initialization may be used aspredetermined parameter values. Alternatively, for example,predetermined parameter values may be determined by using the lowestpossible actual value for a parameter, e.g., using a 1 bit constellationon a subchannel.

Alternatively, the predetermined parameter value may actually be anestimated parameter value based on partial training or the inaccuratemeasurement of initialization functions. For example the predeterminedparameter value may be a bit allocation table that is generated based ona partial inaccurate SNR measurement. A partial SNR measurement isaccomplished if, for example, the SNR is measured over a short period oftime, e.g., less than 1 second in ADSL systems. In this case the bitallocation table based on the inaccurate SNR measurement would besub-optimum and would therefore need to be adapted by seamlesslyadapting the bit allocation table to achieve the optimum data rate.

Alternatively still, for example, the transceivers can monitor one ormore characteristics of the line and/or the transmitted or receiveddata, store this data, and either increase or decrease the data ratethrough an initialization according to the principles of this inventionto maintain the communications link. Furthermore, for example, profilesof various parameter value sets can be stored such that in anticipationof certain conditions, such as varying line conditions that may occur,the transceivers can preemptively initialize and update based on thestored parameter sets.

The provided at least one predetermined parameter value is used toestablish a data communication link between the modems of thetransceivers. As previously explained, the at least one predeterminedparameter value is used as an approximation of the actual parametervalue. The data communication link established in step S42 using thepredetermined parameter value allows the user to transmit and receivedata between the transceivers. Of course, the data communication linkestablished using the at least one predetermined parameter value has adata rate that may be different, e.g., greater or lesser, than a datarate obtained when the actual parameter value corresponding to the atleast one predetermined parameter value is used. In step S43, the actualparameter value corresponding to the at least one predeterminedparameter value is determined. Then, using the actual parameter valuedetermined in step S43, the data rate of the established datacommunication link is seamlessly adapted in step S44 to provide anupdated communication link, for example, a steady state communicationlink, e.g., showtime, with a different data rate. In the illustratedembodiment, the initialization between the modems is then completed instep S45.

Of course, in other exemplary embodiments, the at least onepredetermined parameter value may actually be a plurality ofpredetermined parameter values that approximate a plurality of actualparameter values, these actual parameter values being determined andused to seamlessly adapt the communication link's data rate. In thisregard, FIG. 5 shows a flowchart outlining an exemplary method ofinitializing modems in a multicarrier transmission system in accordancewith another embodiment of the present invention. Again, theinitialization starts in step S50 and a plurality of predeterminedparameter values are provided in step S51, which are used to establish adata communication link in step S52. Once the data communication link isestablished in step S52, at least one actual parameter valuecorresponding to at least one of the predetermined parameter values isdetermined in step S53. Then, using the actual parameter valuedetermined in step S53, the data rate of the established datacommunication link is seamlessly adapted in step S54 to provide a steadystate communication link with an updated, for example, optimized, datarate.

As can be seen, a determination is then made in step S55 as to whetherthe optimization of the communication link is complete. In this regard,optimization as used here refers to the change in data rate of thecommunication link to the data rate that would be attained by acommunication link established using the determined actual parametervalues. In the illustrated embodiment, this step is present because aplurality of predetermined parameter values are provided and theplurality of actual parameter values will be determined. This allows thestep of seamlessly adapting the data rate of the communication link tobe performed numerous times in an iterative manner as one or more of theactual parameter values are determined. For instance, it may bedesirable to iteratively adapt the data rate of the communication linkas the actual parameter values are determined. Thus, rather than waitingfor all of the actual parameter values to be determined before modifyingthe data rate to an optimized data rate, when one or more of the actualparameter values are determined, the data rate of the communication linkmay be updated using only those actual parameter values that have beendetermined.

Of course, the adapted data rate of the communication link partly usingsome of the predetermined parameter values and partly using thedetermined actual parameter values could be less than data rateattainable in a communication link established using all actualparameter values. Nonetheless, this provides the user of thetransmission system better data rate performance than that attained inthe initial communication link established using only the predeterminedparameter values. Moreover, subsequent to this adaptation, the datarate, or other actual parameter values may be determined and the datarate of the communication link seamlessly adapted again based on thenewly determined actual parameter values.

Thus, the steps of determining each of the plurality of actual parametervalues and seamlessly adapting the data rate of the communication linkusing the plurality of actual parameter values may be attainediteratively for each of the plurality of actual parameter values. Thisiterative determination of whether optimization of the communicationlink is complete is made until it is determined that optimization iscompleted which leads to the ending of the initialization between themodems in step S56.

In this manner, rapid initialization of the modems may be attained sothat a data communication link can quickly be established thereinbetween. Moreover, the data rate of the established communication linkis seamlessly adapted as the actual parameter values are determinedthereby improving the performance of the multicarrier transmissionsystem.

For example, the bit allocation table (BAT) can be the predeterminedparameter set. As an example, this predetermined BAT can be based on theBAT that was generated during a previous full initialization. In astandard initialization, the BAT is generated after measuring the SNR ofthe channel using long training sequences. These training sequences cantake, for example, more that 4 seconds. In a fast initialization the SNRcan not be measured using such a long training sequence since the fastinitialization sequence will typically last less than 4 seconds.Therefore, the BAT of the previous full initialization is used as apredetermined parameter set for the fast initialization and a dataconnection is established using this predetermined BAT. Since thechannel may have changed since the last full initialization, thepredetermined BAT may not be optimum for the current connection. Thismeans that the data rate resulting from the use of this BAT may eitherbe too low, because the channel conditions (SNR) have improved, or toohigh, because channel conditions (SNR) have worsened. In either case,the SNR of the channel is measured over the data communication linkconnection over the required measurement period which is typically, forexample, greater than 4 seconds. After the SNR is measured moreaccurately the actual BAT can be generated and the system can bemodified to use the actual BAT. This is accomplished by seamlesslyadapting the data rate and using the new BAT for communication toestablish a steady state connection.

The systems and methods of this invention will also work equally wellwhen a partial training is performed. With a partial training, acombination of actual parameter values and predetermined parametervalues are used. Again, the predetermined parameter values can beretrieved from a storage location and based on any one or more of apreviously used parameter value, a fixed parameter value, a estimatedparameter value, a dynamically determined parameter value, or the like.For example, the system may know that a certain actual parameter will bedifficult and time consuming to determine, for example, the SNR. Thus,the system could use a predetermined parameter value for the SNR, allowdata communication, and determine the actual parameter values for theremaining parameters, thus completing initialization. This approachwould also lead to at least an initialization time savings over that ofa conventional full initialization.

The principles of the invention may be employed using transceivers thatinclude a transmitter, such as that discussed above in relation to FIG.1, and a receiver. In general, an ADSL system includes both atransmitter and a receiver for communication in a particular direction.In the discussion that follows, an ADSL DMT transmitter accepts data andtransmits data over a transmission line, which can be, for example, atwisted wire pair, or the like. A transmission can also occur over amedium that includes other kinds of wires, fiber optic cable, wirelesslinks, or the like. In order to utilize the transmitted signal, a secondtransceiver at the remote end of the transmission line includes areceiver that converts the received analog signal into a digital datastream for use by devices, such as computers, digital televisions,digital radios, communications equipment, or the like. Forbi-directional communication using a pair of transceivers, eachtransceiver includes a transmitter that sends information to thereceiver of the other member of the pair, and a receiver that acceptsinformation transmitted by the transmitter of the other member of thepair.

As discussed herein, the exemplary DMT system has the capability ofadapting the system bit rate on-line, during initialization, in aseamless manner. The DMT system also provides a robust and fast protocolfor completing this seamless rate adaptation. The DMT system alsoprovides a framing and encoding method with reduced overhead compared toconventional DMT systems. This framing and encoding method enables, forexample, a system with a seamless rate adaptation capability.

The specific details of methods for seamlessly adapting the data rate ofthe established communication link as set forth in steps S44 in FIG. 4and S54 in FIG. 5 is discussed herein below. In this regard, variousmethods for seamlessly adapting the data rate during initialization ofthe modems are generically described and various examples are alsodiscussed in U.S. application Ser. No. 09/522,870 filed Mar. 10, 2000entitled “A Method for Seamlessly Changing Power Modes and ADSLSystems,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/522,869, filed Mar. 10,2000 entitled “Seamless Rate Adapted Adaptive Multicarrier ModulationSystem and Protocols,” U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/523,086,filed Mar. 10, 2000 entitled “A Method for Synchronizing Seamless RateAdaptation,”, and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/918,033 filed Aug.1, 2001 entitled “Systems and Methods for Transporting a Network TimingReference in an ADSL System”, all of which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

It is highly desirable that this adaptation of the data rate between themodems occur in a “seamless” manner, i.e., without data bit errors or aninterruption in service. However, the DMT ADSL modem specified standardsare not capable of performing seamless data rate adaptation. Thus, thefollowing discussion provides the details of how the data rate of thecommunication link may be seamlessly increased using various SRA methodsdescribed to provide a data communication link with an updated datarate.

Condition 4 described above does not allow the size of the BAT to changewithout modifying the R-S coding, interleaving and framing parameters.If the BAT and N_(BAT) could be modified during operation, i.e., if moreor fewer bits were allocated to carriers in a DMT symbol, the data ratecould be changed. Condition 4 requires that when the number of bitsN_(BAT) in the BAT changes, the size of the R-S codeword, and thereforethe interleaving parameters, must also be modified. Modifying theinterleaving and coding parameters on-line requires there-initialization of the interleaver. Re-initialization of theinterleaver always results in a “flushing” of the interleave memory.This flushing of the memory results in data errors and the transitionnot being seamless.

In order to allow a DMT ADSL transmission systems to change the datarate seamlessly, such as during initialization of the modems, theframing and encoding of the data must be efficient such that there isless overhead data bits per DMT symbol which thereby increases the databit rate. Additionally, the ADSL system must be able to dynamicallyadapt to the data rate in a seamless manner. Furthermore, there mustexist a robust and fast protocol for completing such a seamless rateadaptation such that the data rate change can occur successfully even inthe presence of high noise levels.

As discussed hereinafter, and in the co-pending related applications, anexemplary framing method is disclosed that decreases the overhead, i.e.,non-payload data in a DMT ADSL system.

FIG. 6 illustrates an ADSL frame and R-S codeword 200 that comprises atleast one framing overhead byte 210, one or more payload bytes 220 andone or more checkbytes 230. This framing method enables seamless rateadaptation. As discussed above, current ADSL systems place restrictionsand requirements on the ADSL frames, R-S codewords, and DMT symbols.This configuration as shown in FIG. 6 allows for the de-coupling of theADSL frames and the R-S codewords from the DMT symbols. This de-couplingresults in a system that has, for example, lower overhead data per DMTsymbol and can also complete data rate adaptations in a seamless manner.Thus, the ADSL frames and the R-S codewords are constructed to have thesame length and to be aligned. The R-S codeword is made sufficientlylarge to maximize the coding gain. The size of the R-S codeword, andtherefore the ADSL frame, can be negotiated at, for example, thebeginning of initialization or predetermined in advance. A fixed numberof R-S checkbytes and overhead framing bytes are included in an ADSLframe. These parameters can also be negotiated at the beginning ofinitialization or predetermined in advance.

Unlike conventional DMT symbols, the DMT symbols produced in accordancewith the exemplary embodiment of this invention are not aligned with theADSL frames and the R-S codewords. Additionally, the number of bits in aDMT symbol depends solely on the data rate requirements andconfigurations, and is de-coupled from the R-S codeword size, theinterleaver depth, and the ADSL frame size.

The number of bits in a DMT symbol dictates the data rate of the modemindependently of the other framing, coding or interleaving restrictions.Since overhead bytes are added at the ADSL frame layer, a DMT symboldoes not necessarily contain a fixed number of overhead bytes. As thedata rate gets lower, for example, 128 kbps, the overhead data remainslow. In particular, this framing method assigns a fixed percentage ofoverhead data to the data stream, rather than a fixed number of overheadbytes. This percentage does not change when the data rate of the modemchanges, as in the case with current ADSL modems. Consider the followingexamples of conventional standard compliant framing methods:

CONVENTIONAL EXAMPLE #1

The line capacity is 192 bytes per DMT symbol (6.144 Mbps). The codewordsize is 192, which includes 16 checkbytes and one overhead framing byte,assuming ANSI T1.413 Framing Mode No. 3. The total framing overhead,i.e., checkbytes plus overhead framing bytes, per DMT symbol is 16+1=17.Therefore, the framing overhead is 17/192=8.8% of the availablethroughput. In this case, the framing overhead is reasonable.

CONVENTIONAL EXAMPLE #2

The line capacity is 4 bytes (128 kbps). The codeword is constructedfrom 16 DMT symbols and is 16×4=64 bytes. There are 16 R-S checkbytes,one checkbyte per DMT symbol, and there is one overhead framing byte,assuming ANSI T1.413 Framing Mode No. 3. The total framing overhead,i.e., checkbytes plus overhead framing bytes, per DMT symbol is 1+1=2bytes. Therefore the framing overhead is 2/4=50% of the availablethroughput. This is highly inefficient.

Examples of embodiments of the framing method that may be used toimplement this invention provide the following results, called theconstant percentage overhead method:

EXAMPLE #1

This is exactly the same as the standard compliant training example,i.e., conventional example #I above. The codeword sizes, DMT symbolsizes and overhead are the same. Therefore, the framing overhead is17/192=8.8% of the available throughput.

EXAMPLE #2

The line capacity is 4 bytes (128 kbps). The codeword is constructedindependently of the DMT symbol and therefore could be, for example, setto 192 bytes. This is also the size of the ADSL frame. Sixteen R-S bytesand one overhead framing byte per codeword or ADSL frame are used. Thereare 192/4=48 DMT symbols in one codeword. The total overhead, i.e.,checkbytes plus overhead framing bytes, per 48 DMT symbols is 1+16=17bytes or 17/48=0.35 bytes per one DMT symbol. The framing overhead isthus 0.35/4=88% of the available throughout.

Accordingly, from Examples 1 and 2 above, it is apparent that a methodof achieving a framing overhead that is a constant percentage of theavailable throughput may be used, regardless of the data rate or theline capacity. In these exemplary scenarios, the framing overhead was8.8% for both 6 Mbps and 128 kbps.

Another exemplary benefit of the framing method described herein is thatit enables seamless data rate adaptation during initialization. SeamlessRate Adaptation (SRA) is accomplished by changing the DMT symbol BAT,i.e., the number of bits allocated to each subchannel in themulticarrier system. As shown above, modifying the BAT changes thenumber of bits per DMT symbol and results in a change in the data bitrate of the system. In an exemplary embodiment, the DMT symbol size ischanged without modifying any of the R-S coding, interleaving and/orframing parameters. This is possible because the constant percentageoverhead framing method described above removes the restrictions imposedby the prior art on the relation between the DMT symbols and the R-Scodewords or ADSL frames. Since the R-S coding and interleavingparameters do not change, interleaver flushing and other problemsassociated with changing the parameters associated with these functionsdo not occur. Thus, the transceiver can adapt the data rate withouterrors or service interruption through an updating of the BAT.

A BAT should be updated at the transmitter and the receiver at exactlythe same time, i.e., on exactly the same DMT symbol. If the transmitterstarts using a new BAT for transmission before the receiver does, thedata is not demodulated correctly and bit errors can occur. Also, if thereceiver changes to a new BAT before the transmitter does, the sameerrors can occur. For this reason, the transition to the use of theupdated BAT for transmission and reception needs to be synchronized atthe transmitter and the receiver. In an exemplary embodiment, a protocolis provided that enables the synchronized transition to the use of anupdated BAT.

It is also important that, for example, this protocol be robust in thepresence of channel noise. For example, if the protocol fails and thereceiver does not switch to the updated BAT at the same time as thetransmitter, then bit errors occur and the transition is not seamless.Furthermore, if the transmitter and receiver are using different BATs,it is difficult to reestablish an error-free link without performing are-initialization of the connection, which results in an interruption ofservice of up to, for example, ten or more seconds as previouslydescribed.

It is also important that the transition between the BATs occur veryquickly, since the need to operate at a new data rate duringinitialization is almost instantaneous.

Accordingly, the SRA protocol should at least provide a method forsynchronizing the transceivers to the updated BAT, a robust transitionto the new data rate and a fast transition to the new data rate.

Two exemplary protocols are provided that satisfy these requirements forseamless rate adaptation during initialization, in particular, toseamlessly increase the data rate of the established communication linkas set forth in step S44 in FIG. 4 and step S54 in FIG. 5. The firstprotocol is the normal SRA (NSRA) protocol and the second protocol isthe fast SRA (FSRA) protocol.

In the normal SRA protocol (NSRA), either the transmitter or thereceiver of the transceiver can initiate this method as illustrated inFIGS. 8-9. In particular, for receiver initiated SRA, control begins instep S100 and continues to step S120, in which during theinitialization, a receiver determines whether the data rate should bemodified, i.e., increased or decreased. If the data rate is to bemodified, control continues to step S130. Otherwise, control jumps tostep S190, where the control sequence ends.

In step S130, the capabilities of the transmitter are checked based onthe determined modified data rate. The data rate may be modifiedbecause, for example, the channel conditions on the desired Bit ErrorRate has changed. Then, in step S140, a determination is made whetherthe updated data rate is within the transmitter's rate capabilities. Ifthe updated data rate is within the transmitter's capabilities, controlcontinues to step S150. Otherwise, control jumps back to step S120.

In step S150, data rate and the updated BAT, which in this case is thedetermined actual parameter value, are forwarded to the transmitterusing, for example, the AOC or EOC channel. This corresponds to an “NSRARequest” by the receiver. Next, in step S160, the transmitter receivesthe “NSRA Request” and uses an inverted synchronization (SYNC) symbol asa flag to signal the receiver that the updated BAT is going to be used.The updated BAT is used for transmission on the first frame, for afinite number of frames, following the inverted SYNC symbol. Theinverted SYNC symbol operates as a rate adaptation “SRA GO” message sentby the transmitter. Then, in step S170, the receiver detects theinverted SYNC symbol, “SRA GO,” and the updated BAT is used forreception on the first frame, or for a finite number of frames,following the inverted SYNC symbol. Control then continues to step S190,where the control sequence ends.

FIG. 9 illustrates the method of performing a transmitter-initiated NSRAduring initialization. In particular, control begins in step S200 andcontinues to step S220, where the transmitter determines whether thedata rate should be modified, i.e., increased or decreased. If the datarate is to be modified, control continues to step S230. Otherwise,control jumps to step S295 where the control sequence ends.

In step S230, having determined the modified data rate, the capabilitiesof the receiver are checked to determine if the desired data rate iswithin the receiver's rate capability. Next, in step S240, adetermination is made whether the data rate is acceptable. If the datarate is acceptable, control continues to step S250. Otherwise, controljumps back to step S220.

In step S250, the transmitter forwards to the receiver the updated datarate using the EOC or AOC channel. This corresponds to an “NSRA Request”message. Next, in step S260, a determination is made, based on the NSRArequest, whether the channel can support the new data rate. If thechannel can support the new data rate, control continues to step S270.Otherwise, control jumps to step S265, where an “SRA DENY” message issent back to the transmitter using, for example, the EOC or AOC channel.

In step S270, the receiver forwards the updated BAT which is thedetermined actual parameter value in this example, to the transmitterusing, for example, the AOC or EOC channel based on the updated datarate. This corresponds to an “NSRA GRANT” request by the receiver. Next,in step S280, the transmitter receives the “NSRA GRANT” message and usesan inverted SYNC symbol as a flag to signal the receiver that the newBAT is going to be used. This new BAT is used for transmission on thefirst frame, or a finite number of frames, following the inverted SYNCsymbol. The inverted SYNC symbol operates as a rate adaptation “SRA GO”message sent by the transmitter. Then, in step S290, the receiverdetects the inverted SYNC symbol “SRA GO” and the updated BAT is usedfor reception on the first frame, or for a finite number of frames,following the inverted SYNC symbol.

The rate adaptation involves changing the number of bits in a DMT symbolby changing the BAT, and not the R-S codeword size, interleaver depth,or the ADSL frame size. This can be done without any interruption indata flow or an introduction of data errors.

This protocol is robust in that it does not use the EOC or AOC channelto send the “SRA GO” message for synchronizing the transition to the newdata rate, such channels easily corrupting messages transmitted therein.

With the above methods, the “SRA GO” message is communicated via aninverted SYNC symbol. The SYNC symbol is defined in the ANSI and ITstandards as a fixed non-data carrying DMT symbol that is transmittedevery 69 symbols. The SYNC symbol is constructed by modulating all theDMT carriers with a predetermined PN sequence using basic QPSK (2-bitQAM modulation). This signal, which may be used throughout the modeminitialization process, has a special auto-correlation property thatmakes possible the detection of the SYNC symbol and the inverted SYNCsymbol even in highly noisy environments. An inverted SYNC symbol is aSYNC symbol in which the phase information in the QAM signal is shiftedby 180 degrees. However, phase shifts other than 180 degrees of the SYNCsymbol can be used equally well for the “SRA GO” message. Using the SYNCsymbol for the “SRA GO” message makes the rate adaptation protocol veryrobust, even in noisy environments. However, in general, any symbol thatcan be detected in the presence of noise can be used in place of theSYNC symbol.

The Fast SRA (FSRA) protocol seamlessly changes the data rate on theline faster than the NSRA protocol. In the FSRA protocol, thepredetermined parameter values are stored BATs which may be used tospeed up the SRA and enable quick changes in the data rate. Unlike theprofiles used in G.992.2, the stored BATs do not contain the R-S codingand interleaving parameters since these parameters are not affected whena data rate change occurs using the constant percentage overheadframing.

The BATs are exchanged using the NSRA method described in the previoussection. After the one-time NSRA is complete, and a BAT that is based onthe particular channel condition or application condition is stored byboth transceivers, the FSRA protocol can use the stored BAT to completefast on-line rate adaptation. Stored BATs are identified so that boththe transmitter and receiver simply need to notify or point to the othertransceiver which table is being used without actually having totransmit the information redundantly. For example, the stored BATs maybe numbered. The transmitter or receiver simply needs to tell the othertransceiver which BAT table number is to be used for subsequenttransmission. As with the NSRA method, either the receiver or thetransmitter can initiate the FSRA protocol.

In particular, and with reference to FIG. 10, the receiver-initiatedFSRA protocol commences in step S300 and continues to step S320 where adetermination is made whether the data rate should be modified. If thedata rate is to be modified, control continues to step S330. Otherwise,control jumps to step S390, where the control sequence ends.

In step S330, the receiver attempts to locate a stored BAT that matchesthe channel and/or application condition. Next, in step S340, adetermination is made whether a stored BAT has been found that matchesthe conditions. If there is no stored BAT that matches the condition,control continues to step S345, where an NSRA is performed. Control thencontinues to step S390.

In step S350, if a BAT is found that matches the condition, the receiversends a message to the transmitter specifying which stored BAT is to beused for transmission based on the new channel and/or applicationcondition. This corresponds to an “FSRA Request” by the receiver. Next,in step S360, the transmitter receives the FSRA request and uses aninverted SYNC symbol as a flag to signal the receiver that the requestedstored BAT will be used for transmission. The stored BAT is used fortransmission on the first frame, or a finite number of frames, followingthe inverted SYNC symbol. The inverted SYNC symbol corresponds to a rateadaptation “SRA GO” message sent by the transmitter. Next, in step S370,the receiver detects the inverted SYNC symbol. Then, in step S380, theupdated BAT is used for reception on the first frame, or for a finitenumber of frames, following the inverted SYNC symbol. Control thencontinues to step S390, where the control sequence ends.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method of performing the fast seamless rateadaptive transmission bit rate changes which are transmitter initiated.In particular, control begins in step S400 and continues to step S420where a determination is made whether the data rate should be modified.If the data rate is to be modified which, for example, matches a channelcondition, control continues to step S440. Otherwise, control jumps tostep S490, where the control sequence ends.

In step S430, the transmitter attempts to locate a stored BAT thatmatches the channel condition. Next, in step S440, a determination ismade whether the stored BAT is available. If the stored BAT is notavailable, control continues to step S445 where the NSRA sequence isinitiated. Control then continues to step S490.

However, in step S450, if a stored BAT matches the channel condition,the transmitter sends a message to the receiver specifying which storedBAT is to be used for transmission based on the channel and/orapplication condition. This corresponds to an FSRA request by thetransmitter. Next, in step S460, the receiver receives the FSRA requestand returns to the transmitter the FSRA Grant message to grant the FSRArequest. Then, in step S470, the transmitter uses an inverted SYNCsymbol as a flag to signal the receiver that the requested stored BATwill be used for transmission. Control then continues to step S480.

In step S480, the specified stored BAT is used for transmission on thefirst frame, for a finite number of frames following the inverted SYNCsymbol. The inverted SYNC symbol corresponds to a rate adaptation “SRAGO” message sent by the transmitter.

In step S480, the receiver detects the inverted SYNC symbol “SRA GO” andthe stored BAT is used for reception on the first frame, or for a finitenumber of frames, following the inverted SYNC symbol.

The FSRA protocol can be completed very quickly. It only requires theexchange of two messages, i.e., the FSRA Grant and the FSRA Request andan inverted SYNC symbol. FSRA is faster than NSRA because, for example,the BAT is stored and need not be re-transmitted. As in the NSRAprotocol, the FSRA protocol is also very robust in noisy environmentssince it uses an inverted SYNC symbol for the “SRA GO” message.

The SRA protocols described above may also be used to manage powerduring the initialization of modems of the transceivers. Full power modeis used during normal operations of the transceiver. Low powertransmission modes are often used in transceivers in order to conservepower in cases when data does not need to be transmitted over the line.Many modems have low power modes or “sleep” modes that enable atransceiver to operate at a significantly lower power level when thetransmission requirements are reduced. Many modems also have protocolsthat enable them to enter and exit these low power modes very quickly sothat the user is not negatively effected by the modem's transition intothe low power mode state. The SRA protocols provided of the inventionare used to enter and exit from low power modes in a very fast andseamless manner. For instance, the modems of the transceivers may befirst operated at a low power level to establish the communication linkand then, the data rate of the communication links be increased byseamlessly in changing to an updated power level.

There are two basic types of low power mode (LPM). The first is Low DataRate LPM is low power mode with a very low data rate (e.g. 32 kbps).Only a few of the subchannels are active. The data connection ismaintained. The pilot tone may also be transmitted in order to maintainloop timing.

Another is the Zero Data Rate LPM which is a low power mode with aneffectively 0 kbps data rate, i.e., no subchannels are modulating data.A data connection is not maintained. The pilot tone may also betransmitted in this case in order to maintain loop timing.

In both the Low Data Rate LPM and the Zero Data Rate LPM, the syncsymbol, which is sent in normal full power mode every 69 symbols, may beon or off. If the sync symbol is still transmitted during the low powermode, the receiver can use the sync symbol to monitor for channelchanges and other fluctuations on the line. However transmission of thesync symbol every 69 symbols can cause non-stationary crosstalk andcould be detrimental to other signals on the same telephone wire or inthe same wire bundle. If the sync symbol is not transmitted during lowpower mode, there is no non-stationary crosstalk on the telephone wireor the wire bundle. However, in this case the receiver is not able tomonitor the channel with the sync symbol.

FSRA may be used to enter the low power mode during initialization ofthe modems in the transceivers. In one example, the receiver initiatesthe transition to low power mode using the receiver-initiated FSRAprotocol. A receiver initiating the transition to low power mode uses apredetermined stored BAT corresponding to the low power mode. The storedBAT table for the low power mode may enable either a Low Data Rate LPMor a Zero Data Rate LPM. The low power mode BAT can be predetermined bythe system or can be exchanged and stored using the NSRA process. Ineither case the receiver uses the receiver-initiated FSRA protocol todesignate the low power mode BAT and synchronously switch to using thatBAT for transmission.

The transmitter may also initiate transition into the low power mode.There are two exemplary ways the transmitter can use thetransmitter-initiated FSRA protocol to enter into the low power mode. Inone embodiment, the transmitter can use the entire transmitter-initiatedFSRA process and request the transition. As in the case ofreceiver-initiated transition into low power mode, transmitterinitiating the transition to low power mode uses a predetermined storedBAT for the low power mode. The stored BAT table for the low power modecan enable either a Low Data Rate LPM or a Zero Data Rate LPM. The lowpower mode BAT can be predetermined by the system or can be exchangedand stored using the NSRA process. In either case the transmitter usesthe transmitter-initiated FSRA protocol to designate the low power modeBAT and synchronously switches to the low power mode using that BAT fortransmission.

In a second exemplary embodiment, the transmitter can transitiondirectly to send the inverted sync symbol to indicate transition intothe low power mode during the transmitter initiated FSRA protocoldescribed above. The receiver detects the inverted sync and transitionsto the low power mode. In this case, since an FSRA request has not beensent by the transmitter, the receiver recognizes that an inverted syncsymbol received without a FSRA request transmitted indicates that thetransmitter is switching to low power mode. The low power mode BAT ispredetermined by the system or is identified and stored previously sothat both the transmitter and the receiver use the BAT. In analternative second embodiment, the transmitter sends a different signalthat is predetermined by the transmitter and the receiver to be thesignal used for transition into low power mode without an “FSRArequest.” For example, the transmitter may send a sync symbol with 45degree phase rotation, rather than the inverted (180 degree) syncsymbol. A sync symbol with a 45 degree phase rotation indicates that thetransmitter is transitioning into low power mode using the stored BATassociated with the low power mode on the first frame, or a finitenumber of frames, following the sync symbol with a 45 degree rotation.The transmitter-initiated entry into low power mode as defined in thesecond embodiment has the advantage that it does not require the reversechannel to make the transition. The reverse channel is defined as thecommunications channel in the opposite direction, i.e., here, thecommunications channel used to send the FSRA messages from the receiverto the transmitter.

This is advantageous because the reverse channel may already be in lowpower mode with no data connection. If there is no data ready to besent, the transmitter can simply transition to low power mode. This isan important power savings technique since the transmitter consumes alarge portion of the power, as it is required to send the signal downthe line. Transmitter-initiated transition into low power modes is alsouseful in “soft modem” (PC host based) implementations. In a soft modemimplementation, the host processor is performing the modem transceiverfunctions and many other PC applications at the same time. If the hostprocessor must perform another task that does not allow it to run theADSL transmitter, the processor can quickly transition the transmitterto the low power mode by sending the inverted sync symbol, or the syncsymbol with 45 degree rotation. After this the host processor resourcescan be consumed by the other task. The ADSL transmitter sends no signal(0 kbps) onto the line. The transmitter-initiated and receiver-initiatedprotocols described above enable the communication system to enter a lowpower mode in each direction (upstream and downstream) separately or inboth directions together. The cases described above each focus on onedirection. The protocols can be combined to accomplish transition inboth directions at the same time. As an example, assume that thecustomer premise transceiver (CPT) is designed to enter into a low powermode in response to a PC that is also entering a similar state. The CPTfirst uses receiver-initiated low power mode transition to put thedownstream (CO to CPT direction) into low power mode. Afterwards the CPTuses the transmitter-initiated low power mode transition to put theupstream (CPE to CO direction) into low power mode.

According to the SRA protocols, there are two embodiments the receivercan use to exit the low power mode during initialization of the modemsof the transceivers. In the first embodiment, receiver-initiated exitfrom low power mode can be accomplished using the receiver initiatedNSRA or FSRA protocol if the low power mode still has at least a slowdata connection in the reverse direction (low data rate LPM). This isnecessary because the receiver must be capable of sending the SRArequest back to the transmitter along with the BAT to be used. If thetransmitter has not turned off the sync symbol in low power mode theNSRA or FSRA protocols would be used as described above. If thetransmitter sync symbol is turned off while in low power mode, the “SRAGo” is sent by the transmitter by turning the sync symbol back on. Thereceiver detects the presence of the sync symbol (with or withoutinversion) as a flag to synchronize the change in data rate.

In a second embodiment, there is no data connection in the reversedirection (Zero Data Rate LPM). The receiver initiates an exit by firstcompleting a “transmitter-initiated exit from low power mode (describedbelow) in the reverse direction. This enables the data connection in thereverse direction. The receiver uses the receiver initiated NSRA or FSRAprotocol to exit from low power mode in it's own direction. As describedabove, if the transmitter sync symbol is turned off while in low powermode, the “SRA Go” is sent by the transmitter by turning the sync symbolback on. The receiver detects the presence of the sync symbol (with orwithout inversion) as a flag to synchronize the change in data rate.

According to the SRA protocols, there are two embodiments thetransmitter can use to exit from low power mode during initialization ofthe modems of the transceivers. In the first embodiment, the transmitteruses the entire transmitter initiated FSRA or NSRA process and requeststhe transition. This requires that there is a data connection in bothdirections (Low data rate LPM) so the protocol messages can beexchanged. As in the receiver-initiated exit from low power mode, if thetransmitter has not turned off the sync symbol in low power mode theNSRA or FSRA protocols would be used as described above. If thetransmitter had turned the sync symbol off while in low power mode, thenthe “SRA Go” is sent by the transmitter by turning the sync symbol backon. The receiver detects the presence of the sync symbol (with orwithout inversion) as a flag to synchronize the change in data rate.

In the second embodiment, the transmitter can exit the low power mode bysending the inverted sync symbol to indicate transition out of the lowpower mode. This requires that a sync symbol be sent during the lowpower mode. This protocol does not require a low data rate LPM. Thereceiver detects the inverted sync and exits the low power mode. Thereceiver is designed to recognize that an inverted sync symbol receivedwithout a FSRA request indicates the transmitter is exiting from lowpower mode. The full power mode BAT is identified and stored previouslyso that both the transmitter and the receiver have the BAT. For example,the BAT to be used upon exiting a low power mode can be defined by thesystem to default to the BAT of the last full power connection.Alternatively, the transmitter can send a different signal that ispredetermined by the transmitter and the receiver to be the signal usedfor transition out of low power mode without an “FSRA request.” Forexample, the transmitter can send a sync symbol with 45 degree phaserotation, rather than the inverted (180 degree) sync symbol. When thereceiver detects the sync symbol with a 45 degree phase rotation, thereceiver recognizes that the transmitter is transitioning out of lowpower mode using the stored BAT associated with the full power mode onthe first frame, or a finite number of frames, following the sync symbolwith a 45 degree rotation. If the transmitter had turned the sync symboloff while in low power mode, then the “SRA Go” is sent by thetransmitter by turning the sync symbol back on. The receiver detects thepresence of the sync symbol (with or without a phase shift) as a flag tosynchronize the change in data rate.

Although throughout this description, the BAT is defined to be a tablethat specifies the number of bits allocated to each subchannel, the BATcan also contain other parameters associated with allocating bits tosubchannels in a multicarrier system. An example of an additionalparameter is the Fine Gain per subchannel as defined in the ANSI and ITUstandards. In this case, when the BAT is exchanged during the NSRAprotocol or the BAT is stored during the FSRA protocol, the BAT alsocontains the Fine Gain value for each subchannel.

The seamless rate adaptive system and associated protocols describedabove which may be used for seamlessly increasing the data rate of theestablished communication link may also be applied to DMT systems thatimplement dual (or multiple) latency paths. A dual latency system isdefined in the ITU and ANSI standards as a DMT system that supports twodata streams with different latency specifications in the Framer/FECblock.

FIG. 7 illustrates a standard ADSL DMT system 300 that implements duallatency, as an example of a system having a plurality of latencies. Thesystem 300 includes three layers: the Modulation layer 310, theFramer/FEC layer 320, and the ATM TC layer 340, which are similar butnot identical to the three layers described above in relation to FIG. 1.

The Modulation layer 310 provides the functionality associated with theDMT modulation. The DMT modulation is implemented using a InverseDiscrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) 112. The IDFT 112 modulates the bitsfrom the dual input Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) 314 encoderinto the multicarrier subchannels. The operation of the Modulation layer310 is analogous to that of Modulation layer 110 of FIG. 1, with thedifference that the Modulation layer 310 has multiple inputs, ratherthan only one input.

The Framer/FEC layer 320 shown in FIG. 7 has two paths. This layercontains a first path that includes the same portions as in theFrame/FEC layer 120 of FIG. 1, namely the Interleaving (INT) portion122, the Forward Error Correction (FEC) portion 124, the scrambler (SCR)portion 126, the Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) portion 128 and the ADSLFramer portion 130. The layer further contains a second path thatincludes a second one of each of the Forward Error Correction (FEC)portion 124′, the scrambler (SCR) portion 126′, the Cyclic RedundancyCheck (CRC) portion 128′ and the ADSL Framer portion 130′. The Frame/FEClayer 320 provides functionality associated with preparing a stream ofbits for modulation.

The lower path through the Framer/FEC layer 320 has a different amountof latency than the original upper path corresponding to FIG. 1, becausethe lower path does not perform interleaving on the data stream. Duallatency is used to send different bit streams with different latencyrequirements through the ADSL DMT modem. The ATM TC layer 340 includesan ATM TC portion 342 having multiple inputs and multiple outputs thattransforms bits and bytes in cells into frames for each path.

The exemplary seamless rate adaptation system and method of the presentinvention also applies to a system with dual latency, or even multiplelatencies. In the case of dual latency, the FEC and interleavingparameters for both paths are decoupled from the DMT symbol size. TheBAT contains, in addition to the number of bits allocated to eachsubchannel, the data rate for each latency path in the form of bits perDMT symbol. When seamless rate adaptations are performed using the FSRAand NSRA protocols, the BAT also indicates the data rate for eachlatency path. For example, if the dual latency system runs with 1.536Mbps on the interleaved path, e.g., a high latency upper path, and 256kbps in the non-interleaved path, e.g., a low latency lower path, and anSRA is initiated, then the SRA protocol specifies the updated parametervalue such as an updated BAT containing the number of bits persubchannel and also the new data rate for each latency path. At a 4 kHzDMT symbol rate, a system running at 1.536 Mbps+256 kbps=1.792 Mbps.1792000/4000=448 total bits per symbol. The BAT specifies that1536000/4000=384 bits per symbol are allocated to the interleaved pathand 256000/4000=64 bits per symbol are allocated to the non-interleavedpath. In the example, when an SRA is performed, the updated data ratefor the interleaved path can be 1.048 Mbps, i.e., 1048000/4000=262 bitsper symbol, and the new data rate for the non-interleaved path can be128 kbps, i.e., 128000/4000=32 bits per DMT symbol, resulting in a totalthroughput rate of 1.176 kbps, or 294 total bits per DMT symbol. TheNSRA and FSRA protocols combined with the framing method specifiedherein complete this data rate change in both latency paths in aseamless manner. It is also possible to not change the data rate on bothlatency paths.

These basic concepts can be expanded to encompass the transportation ofa network timing reference (NTR) in an single or multiple latency ADSLDMT system. Specifically, the transportation of the NTR involves sendinga timing reference signal from a CO modem to a CPE modem. This enablesthe CPE modem to reconstruct the network clock in order to send andreceive signals or applications that are synchronous to the networkclock, such as voice over DSL.

As discussed above, the framing layer is decoupled from the modulationlayer. As a result, the NTR signal cannot be inserted at the framinglayer as is done in the current ADSL standards specified in the ITU andANSI. Furthermore, the SRA enables the system to change the data rate ina seamless manner by updating the total number of bits per DMT symbol.This is exactly what is necessary in order to transport the NTR since byusing a subset of the subchannels to transport the NTR on a specific DMTsymbol, the number of bits per DMT symbol is changing from one DMTsymbol to another. The SRA methods discussed above allow this to happenseamlessly. However, it is to appreciated that the SRA enables thetransport of the NTR regardless of whether the BAT is actually modifiedon the DMT symbol transporting the NTR, since the total number of bitsper DMT symbol for the regular information data is changing from one DMTsymbol to another.

Therefore, the NTR signal is inserted and transported at the modulationlayer by sending the NTR bits, for example, as specified in the ADSLstandard, on a set of carriers of a specified DMT symbol in asuperframe. For example, the NTR bits can be sent on the first DMTsymbol of the superframe. Thus, for the other DMT symbols in thesuperframe, the set of carriers used for transporting the NTR can beused to transport other data, such as information data.

This versatility allows the same BAT to be used for the DMT symbol withthe NTR bits and the DMT symbol without the NTR bits. However, adifferent BAT can be used for the DMT symbol that sends the NTR bits,than the DMT symbol(s) that do not send the NTR bits.

In the first case, for the DMT symbol with the NTR bits, a number ofsubchannels are used to transport the NTR bits, while for DMT symbolswithout NTR bits, these subchannels are used to transport other data,such as information data. For the second case, where the different BATsare used, the use of different BATs can take advantage of sending theNTR bits with, for example, a higher margin than the regular informationbits. This can be especially useful since, the NTR signal may or may notbe coded with the FEC coding scheme as the regular information bits.

As an example, during the DMT symbol that transports the NTR bits, theBAT in Table 2 can be used. During the DMT symbols without NTR bits, theBAT in Table 3 can be used. For example, during the DMT symbol thattransports the NTR bits, the NTR signal is transmitted in a 4 bitmessage, as is done in the current ADSL standard, on subchannels 1, 3and 6 with a high margin. TABLE 2 Subchannel Number Bits Allocated toSubchannel 1 1 (NTR) 2 6 3 1 (NTR) 4 5 5 4 6 2 (NTR) 7 5 8 5 9 6 10 4 115 Total bits per symbol allocated to NTR = 4 Total bits per symbolallocated to regular information data = 40

When the NTR is not being sent, Table 3 illustrates that the BAT changedand that subchannels 1, 3 and 6 are used to transport information data.TABLE 3 Subchannel Number Bits Allocated to Subchannel 1 5 2 6 3 6 4 5 54 6 4 7 5 8 5 9 6 10 4 11 5 Total bits per symbol allocated to NTR = 0Total bits per symbol allocated to regular information data = 55

While above examples illustrate the use of subchannels 1, 3 and 6, it isto be appreciated that any subchannels, or combination thereof, can beused with equal success in accordance with this invention.

FIG. 12 illustrates an exemplary method of transporting an NTR from a COmodem to a CPE modem according to this invention. In particular, controlbegins in step S500 and continues to step S510. In step S510, adetermination is made wether to update the network clock. This update istypically done on a periodic basis, for example, every 69 DMT symbols,in order to allow the receiver to track the network clock using a timingrecovery method, such as a phase lock loop. If the network clock is tobe updated, control continues to step S520. Otherwise, control jumps tostep S595 where the control sequence ends.

In step S520, the NTR information is assembled. Next, in step S530, adetermination is made whether the same BAT is to be used for both thenormal DMT symbols, i.e., those that do not contain the NTR bits, andthe DMT symbols that are used for transmission of the NTR bits. If thesame BAT is to be used, control jumps to step S550. Otherwise, controlcontinues to step S540.

In step S540, a BAT for use in transporting the NTR bits is selected.Control then continues to step S550. In step S550, the NTR is insertedat the modulation layer. This is done, for example, on the first DMTsymbol of a superframe. Next, in step S560, a determination is madewhether additional information bits are also to be added to the BAT. Ifadditional information bits are to be added, control continues to stepS570. Otherwise, control jumps to step S580. In most cases, additionalinformation bits are added to the BAT. However, if the data rate is verylow, then the NTR bits may be the only bits transmitted on that DMTsymbol.

In step S570, the information bits are added to the BAT. Control thencontinues to step S580. In step S580, the NTR is transported to the CPEmodem. Then, in step S590, the CPE modem receives the NTR andsynchronizes the CPE clock. Control then continues to step S595 wherethe control sequence ends.

The present invention for initializing modems of transceivers in amulticarrier transmission system and related components can beimplemented either on a DSL modem, such as an ADSL modem, or separateprogrammed general purpose computer having a communication device.However, the present method can also be implemented in a special purposecomputer, a programmed microprocessor or a microcontroller andperipheral integrated circuit element, an ASIC or other integratedcircuit, a digital signal processor, a hardwired or electronic logiccircuit such as a discrete element circuit, a programmable logic device,such as a PLD, PLA, FPGA, PAL, or the like, and associatedcommunications equipment.

Furthermore, the disclosed method may be readily implemented in softwareusing object or object-oriented software development environments thatprovide portable source code that can be used on a variety of computers,workstations, or modem hardware and/or software platforms.Alternatively, the method may be implemented partially or fully inhardware using standard logic circuits or a VLSI design. Other softwareor hardware can be used to implement the methods in accordance with thisinvention depending on the speed and/or efficiency requirements, theparticular function, and the particular software and/or hardware ormicroprocessor or microcomputer being utilized. Of course, the presentmethod can also be readily implemented in a hardware and/or softwareusing any known later developed systems or structures, devices and/orsoftware by those of ordinary skill in the applicable art from thefunctional description provided herein and with a general basicknowledge of the computer and telecommunications arts.

Moreover, the disclosed methods can be readily implemented as softwareexecuted on a programmed general purpose computer, a special purposecomputer, a microprocessor and associated communications equipment, amodem, such as a DSL modem, or the like. In these instances, the methodsand systems of this invention can be implemented as a program embeddedin a modem, such as a DSL modem, or the like. The method can also beimplemented by physically incorporating the method into a softwareand/or hardware, such as a hardware and software system of amulticarrier information transceiver, such as an ADSL modem, VDSL modem,network interface card, or the like.

Thus, it should be evident from the discussion above how the presentinvention provides an improved method for initializing modems oftransceivers in a multicarrier transmission system to establish acommunication link between the transmitter and the receiver. Byproviding and using a predetermined parameter value that approximates acorresponding actual parameter value of the communication link, a datacommunication link may be attained very quickly to allow thetransmission of data. Then, the actual parameter value may be determinedand the data rate of the communication link may be seamlessly updatedusing the determined actual parameter value and the SRA methodsdescribed to provide an steady state communication link.

While this invention has been described in conjunction with a number ofembodiments, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications andvariations would be or are apparent to those of ordinary skill in theapplicable art. Accordingly, applicants intend to embrace all suchalternatives, modifications, equivalents and variations that are withinthe spirit and the scope of this invention.

1. A method to establish a communication link between transceiverscomprising: providing at least one predetermined parameter value, havingan associated first data rate, that approximates at least onecorresponding actual parameter value of the communication link;establishing a data communication link between the transceivers usingthe at least one predetermined parameter value as an approximation ofthe at least one actual parameter value of the communication link toallow transmission of data between the transceivers at the first datarate; determining the actual parameter value, associated with a seconddata rate, corresponding to the at least one predetermined parametervalue after establishing the data communication link using thepredetermined parameter value; and seamlessly adapting the first datarate of the established communication link to the second data rate.
 2. Asystem for establishing a communication link comprising: means forproviding at least one predetermined parameter value, having anassociated first data rate, that approximates at least one correspondingactual parameter value of the communication link; means for establishinga data communication link between the transceivers using the at leastone predetermined parameter value as an approximation of the at leastone actual parameter value of the communication link to allowtransmission of data between the transceivers at the first data rate;means for determining the actual parameter value, associated with asecond data rate, corresponding to the at least one predeterminedparameter value after establishing the data communication link using thepredetermined parameter value; and means for seamlessly transitioningfrom the first data rate of the established communication link to thesecond data rate.